Bridge Report from Salt Lake City - a Canadian Point of View

The Saga Continues Day 2 Sunday

By Linda Lee

The day started off with an impressive win for the Canadian men, who beat Australia 41-11 to win 23 out of 25 victory points. At this point they were a huge 16 victory points ahead of second place. The Canadian women started out well too with a win against China 32-23 for 17 victory points and things were definitely looking up.

Round 4 however was a definite disappointment, The Canadian men had their first loss to Norway 35-49 IMPS (11-19 Victory Points). One highlight of the fourth round was Board 24 Judy Gartaganis played this hand very well to make 3NT.

        S  K 10 8 3
        H  4
        D  K 10 9 6 3 2
        C  8 3

S  A 4 2                 S  J 6 5
H  J 9 6 2               H  K 5 3
D  A Q 4                 D  J 7 5
C  A J 5                 C  K Q 6 2
        S  Q 9 7
        H  A Q 10 8 7
        D  8
        C  10 9 7 4

The auction went along the lines of 1NT-3NT. Nick Gartaganis for the men led a spade which gives declarer no hope, but his wife Judy playing on the womenĖs team received a more natural diamond lead and had her chance to shine. Judy put the DJ and now had 7 tricks. The heart suit seemed to give her the best chance for the remaining two tricks she required. Judy now made the key play of leading a small heart towards her HJ9xx. This play is critical because declarer needs to lead hearts from dummy twice to finesse South's HQ10 and she only has one additional entry in the club suit without giving up a club trick. A well played hand and a well deserved 11 imps for the Canadian women.

Unfortunately both teams followed this with big losses in their fifth round. The Canadian men lost to an Italian team which has been playing very well, while the women lost heavily to a French team which had come into form after a very poor start.

In Round 6 the Canadian men pulled up their socks and beat a tough team from Indonesia 31-26 Imps to pick up 16 victory points. The Canadian momen had a very disappointing loss to Austria (29-44) which probably ended their hopes of doing more than finishing respectably. With 3 sessions to go the Canadian men are well placed, holding the third of four qualifying spots, more than 9 victory points ahead of the fifth place team from Poland. In their final three matches they face Brazil, Poland and Egypt.The Canadian Women are in ninth place but quite determined to make a good showing with a strong finish. We expect a much better day today.

A friend of mine, Bill Milgram, often tells me that it much better at imps to bid bad games and make the opponents defend well to beat them, than to try to win by staying safely below game. The Canadian men demonstrated this on the following Board 20 of Round 6 to win a game swing.

        S  A Q
        H  8 6 3
        D  A Q 9 8 6 4 3
        C  10

S  6 5 4 2                S  K987
H  K J 9 5                H  A10 7
D  K 5                    D  10 7
C  J 9 4                  C  K 7 3 2

        S  J 10 3
        H  Q 4 2
        D  J 2
        C  A Q 8 6 5

Most auctions started off with Pass by West and 1D by North. South bid either 1NT or 2C and North rebid 2D. The question is whether or not the South hand should bid again. At Nick GartaganisĖ table, Peter Jones continued with 2NT and it was easy for North to bid 3NT. The defence to 3NT usually started off with 4 rounds of hearts followed by a spade switch, and at this point declarer has to bring home the diamond suit for one loser. This requires the king onside doubleton (or tripleton with a singleton 10 in the East hand). As you can see this hand did have a happy ending for the Canadian men.

The prettiest hand of the day on Vugraph was played by Sabine Auken of Germany who capitalized on a defensive error by one of the Dutch players to make 4H and earn a big swing, as well a Vugraph audience ovation. I am going to provide the hand and the play to the first few tricks and give you with the chance to work out the best line. (I will provide the solution tomorrow.) DonĖt cheat by checking e-bridge or tomorrowĖs daily bulletin since this hand is destined to be reported everywhere.

Here is the hand:

        S  A K 8 7 6
        H  J 10 6 4
        D  A 3
        C  K 6

S  Q                     S  J 10 9 5 4 2 
H  A 9 5                 H  Q 8
D  K J 9 6               D  10 7 4 2
C  Q J 10 9 4            C  2

        S  3
        H  K 7 3 2
        D  Q 8 5
        C  A 8 7 5 3

Sabine was North and played the hand in 4H after West had made a 2C overcall during the auction. The opening lead from East was the C2. The C9 forced the CK in her hand, after which Sabine led the H10 and East erred by failing to cover. West won the HA and returned the C10; East ruffed in with the HQ. East returned the D7 and Sabine found the good play of ducking this to WestĖs DJ and her own DA.

Can you make the contract from here? The Vugraph team did not spot the winning line until Peter Weichsel pointed it out to them from the audience į given that Sabine found it at the table, can you do better looking at all four hands?